Disabusing Evil with Creative Power – Section One

Part Nine: WeCreating the Future of Christianity & the World

Disentangling the Roots of Evil

“Only if we grant power to something can it have power over us. It becomes a serving and sustaining potency when we again are able to place it into the realm where it belongs, instead of submitting to it.” – Jean Gebser

Rather than getting too caught up in the persons involved with evil (see section one)—which we usually can only do so much about anyway—we can seek to engage on a deeper level of the source and roots, we will find the toxin from which the blight is grown. And we must recognize this poison for what it is. We must see the fragmentation, the void, the absence and set it apart from ourselves—not try to pull it into premature “unity.”

Yes, there is much pain, wounding, and hurt that has come from the movements of evil. And healing is part of the process as well for individuals—but that can really only come after the oppositional force and power of evil loses its grip. Trying to “accept and embrace” before this release happens is to deny the fight, and therefore deny the true and real disintegration and disempowerment underneath it.

So we must see the force for what it truly is. And stand apart from its energy source. We must cut it off from within ourselves. For this venom spreads like a virus and seeps into fueling “both sides” as well. “The resistance” can also be tainted with it, so even if the revolution succeeds, what follows is contaminated—as has been shown countless times throughout history. It’s why we are so drawn to figures like Gandhi, MLK, Nelson Mandela, and Malala Yousafzai. Because they stood apart, deeply rooted in their own inner, divine power, and also refused to partake in the fight.

These are the roots from which we draw real and transformational power. And when they are connected and engaged, the others become supplanted, less and less necessary, as the power is revealed hollow in comparison to true divine vitality.

It may take time to affect the surface, but the roots of evil will shrivel as the true roots are watered, nurtured, and grow stronger.

Disabusing Evil with Divine Vitality

To disabuse evil, we come from a greater attractive force than the distorted one. Rooted in the great power and force of divine vitality, we don’t just act it out every so often, but truly live from it. This comes more and more as we further inhabit and embody the qualities of divine vitality in our own grounded and integrated ways.

Coming into this divine reality in our lives often requires a rebirth, or perhaps even a death and resurrection—in the deepest sense of the spiritual reality Jesus pointed toward. This is much more than a moral recalibration or an orientation of belief, but a significant transformation and reshaping of our very life and way of being from the inside. Being born now fully of God, from the divine source and vitality in the womb of the Divine Mother, into the heavenly realm—which is all around us and in our midst, ever-integrating and becoming in the here and now.

I believe this is even a primary way we follow Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies. We do so from the deeper source of our evolutionary eros, rather than a total acceptance or unconditional love, at least on a certain level (again, we must stand apart first). The desire for joining together, reconciliation, and “bipartisanship” only can come after true and honest recognition and disavowal. Just as Jesus loved his enemies, the pharisees and ruling powers, by refusing to accept and allow their abuses. He could do this because he lived and spoke from the inner divine power he inhabited. And so can we.

We too can live and act from this entirely different force and order. It is found as we tap into and awaken our divine vitality and creative power deep within (and among us in generative communion). When we make ourselves conscious to this living empowerment, we become more fully human and divine, intertwined. We are now alive to our magic structure of consciousness as an active and engaged part of our lived reality.

As this happens, we come more and more to find our true voice rooted in the authentic divine power of our true source.

This is one of the reasons why we practice in mysticism the way we do in ICN, growing in our conscious capacity to give voice to the magic structure alive within and among us as we do in Resonating Prayer. In growing consciousness, mysticism finds its voice, because it is essential in the integration and incarnation of engagement with the world, holistic participation in reality, and even for the disenchanting of evil.

Our words come from this deeper place, this inner power. They may be fewer. They may be soft and powerful or loud and gentle. Since they are charged with divine vitality, they will carry more weight than any argument, appeal, or rant. Because they won’t be spoken from our own power alone, but the divine power held in strength—and in integrated, healthy heartful compassion and mindful wisdom.

We see this in the story of Jesus speaking to the tax collector, Matthew, who leaves behind his false power when offered an invitation to true divine presence and a life path rooted in something greater. The only words Jesus spoke were, “follow me,” but the power within and underneath them were so palpable as to compel Matthew to get up and actually do so. Jesus spoke to the deep place in Matthew that craved a life that truly inhabited “something more.”

Of course, not all will have ears to hear, as Matthew did. And in truth, finding our voice is not really about anyone else or how we affect others, at least at first. That is not our motivation, as if it is some kind of rhetorical technique. No, it is about coming into the empowered, integrated consciousness of the fullness of our being, enlivened by the ever-present divine source as a real and felt force in any and every moment of our lives.

The Living Force of Creative, Generative Mysticism

We desperately need the magic structure of consciousness to come alive and be consciously present again today. We do this by stepping out of its denial and reclaiming it from modern banishment. We don’t sacrifice the mental structure and shut off or escape from our minds (though we do release it from its own imperialism).

Rather, we come into the integral whole, which is the completion of integration with all of our structures in their conscious form. So we can root down into the great force of divine vitality and arise in harmony with our whole being as we are meant to live and be, with all of our ways of being and knowing attuned and present to what truly is—and what is emerging anew in this time.

And here we come to WeCreating, for it is only from the divine creative force of vitality sourced in conscious participation with the living magic structure that we find our true place in the world. Welcoming the creative force of our uniqueness in soul contribution—or rather, deeper than contribution—it is the true and living engagement with our deepest longing to be of value, to matter, to have our lives not just make a difference, but truly be engaged with that which matters most.

This can only come from a deep source of divine vitality that inhabits a degree of enchantment which compels and inspires. And it has to take shape with empowered action that makes a difference, that taps into the creative force and life that is within each person.

And not just within any one of us individually, but in the collective encounter and shared inhabiting we find beyond the fragmentation of individualism. The forces of evil prey upon the lonely and isolated. The love of evolutionary eros draws us together in authentic communities of deep connection and co-creativity that reflect who we truly are in our interbeing.

In this way, we come into a real and actionable divine vocation. From our divine vitality, we become divine makers in the world, living in a power and purpose so much greater and more meaningful than any distortion of false power.

If we truly lived in this way, more and more of us, the energy that feeds the illusory forces of evil would become more and more apparent as truly weak and sad. They would lose their appeal and the spell would be broken—more and more.

This takes time and seems like a much more difficult path than “taking up arms” in one way or another. But this spiritual path is the only way to go deep enough to dispel and disabuse, to get to the roots of the matter.

It requires us to do our inner work of inhabiting, transforming, and creating anew. We can’t project it all out onto “the other,” the opponent, the problem out there.

Similarly, we cannot project the spiritual work and transformation outside of ourselves either. It is not up to the leader, the guru, the spiritual hero to save the day. We have to own it and do the deep work of engaging in our divine becoming, stepping into our divine vitality, finding our divine vocation.

And as we do, we bring it into the field of WeCreating together with others living from their divine creative power. Except, even, it doesn’t always work that way. The living WeSpace of our communion is also the place of discovery, the field of our becoming, the tapestry of our making. Here, we find a way beyond agenda, beyond competition, beyond our fixed and singular perspectives and into the holistic co-generation of our living communion.

Acknowledging Shadow

Here, it would be a glaring omission if we neglected to consider how shadow plays into all of this.

Jesus teaches us to consider the log in our own eye before the speck in the other. Sometimes it may feel like a whole forest out there in the world today. And yet, we still must do the necessary work of recognizing, owning, and acknowledging how our relationship to the events of the world—and our relationship to evil—may very often be laced with shadow projections.

Again, it cannot put all of it on the enemy or the external problem “out there,” just as we can’t put all the solution and spiritual work necessary onto others either.

As much as we feel we can trust our perceptions of what is truly going on in the world and with others, we really don’t know the reality of the inner worlds of those we are not in direct contact and engagement with. Yes, we can and must recognize and stand apart from evil. And, we can always embrace our empowered humility—not false humility—to hold our perspectives with grace and receptivity.

We are always limited by our singular mental perception, awash as it always is in our stories, our woundings, our own unconscious forces. The gift of community is absolutely crucial as well, for when we can trust others and open up to a greater WePerception.

Gebser wrote of the “aperspectival” aspect of the integral structure of consciousness, which is a freedom from the one fixed point of view from the self-referential vantage point of the mental structure. In the new evolution, we come into the constellation of consciousness in deeper awareness through multiple ways of perceiving (recognizing, comprehending, understanding, remembering) awakened in all of our centers of spiritual knowing/structures of consciousness and in interplay with the I, the We, the All, and even the eternal.

In authenticity and honesty, with humility, we can seek to come to the truest perceptions we can manage, dispelling as much illusion and falsity as we can in all the ways we can—spiritually, psychologically, relationally. To do this well though, we must have a posture of being open and willing to do our deep shadow work (we all have shadow related to each of our structures of consciousness). We have to choose to make that agreement with ourselves and others.

Next week, in our Becoming offering, we’ll share some resources and ways of engaging in shadow work (or shadow play, if you prefer).

For now, in addition to all the ways that we have considered our engagement with evil and how it is at play in the world, we might do well to look at ourselves too.

Before we’re too quick to place these evil forces in any particular location “out there,” we might first ask,

Where do you see these forces in yourself?
Where do you see them in your “own camp”?
(whatever group or tribe that may be—your country, your political party, your church, your ideology, or whatever group you consider yourself a part of.)
What is my part in this situation?
(as Thich Nhat Hahn would say)

These may be hard to see ourselves. It’s called “the shadow” for a reason. It’s best done with others in trusted settings with informed processes and clear agreements.

Walking into What’s Ahead with Courage and Power

Given the state of the world and the rising forces of evil, we don’t know what’s ahead for us all. In the uncertainty amidst all the changes, it’s easy to give in to anxiety and fear. It’s natural to find ourselves triggered and activated into states of survival instinct where we want to fight or run away. We find ourselves frozen, bargaining, in denial, or trying to appease ourselves or others.

All evolution happens through major change, and it’s not a linear path of steady progress. Our engaged responsiveness, wise perspective-taking, and intentional participation in loving evolution will always demand a lot out of us. It will require us to have a deeper ground of stability, rooted in a force as strong as divine vitality. It will require us to hold to an embodiment of hope that carries us through—and into the midst of it all with courage.

The oft-repeated quote of Einstein’s, that the problems of today will not be solved by the same level of consciousness that created them, is true. But this does not mean that the new “solutions” and responses of evolution will always be “higher” wisdom. Sometimes, and maybe even often, we will need to grow down. We will inhabit anew from the depths who we really truly are and reintegrate what has been lost, what we have been disconnected from, bringing it into the greater whole.

We cannot simply try to keep elevating beyond it.

And we cannot continue to just stand against and resist from the same level of the symptoms.

We go to the roots. We dwell in the hope and power of our authentic divine vitality, which transforms our lives and invites us into a stronger calling and inspiring divine vocation.

From this wholeness and living force, evil is disabused and dispelled of its false power.

It’s not the only way—but it’s one that will be essential in the days ahead for how we contend with the evil that spreads.

And only from this fullness and integrative enlivenment does the next evolution irrupt.

We are a part of bringing it forth as we live and WeCreate from the truth of our divine inspiration, which will be our next topic in part ten.

All Images are open-source, used with permission, or created by ICN

Disabusing Evil with Creative Power – Section Two